Hasta La Ideas

Here are some photographs of the renovated 1960s Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, set to host matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup (+ slideshow).

BCMF Arquitetos was commissioned for a complete overhaul of the 1960s football stadium, located on the edge of the Pampulha Lagoon. Originally designed by architects Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto, the building features an oval-shaped structure with a rhythmic facade made up of 88 projecting ribs.

The team stripped the building back to its shell, before adding a new roof, lowering the pitch, upgrading all services and infrastructure, and adding new shops and a dedicated football museum.

“Since Mineirão is a protected building, the addition of new program could be solely made through the insertion of a platform at its base,” said the design team. “Subverting the classic notion of a podium, which refers to a horizontal building with a flat top surface, this platform is carved on the ground and shaped accordingly, creating semi-public squares set at different levels.”

The lowering of the pitch helps to improve sight lines for spectators, while redesigned seating tiers at the lower levels increase the capacity to over 62,000 seats.

Structural analysis revealed that the structure had subsided by around 30 centimetres. This was corrected using hydraulic jacks and steel cables, before the architects added a cantilevered roof to shelter spectators.

Sustainable technologies were also prioritised. As reported earlier this year, the stadium is the first in the world to be fully powered by solar energy, and uses rainwater harvesting to reduce its water consumption.

Improvements to the surrounding landscaping involved creating an artificial topography that defines public plazas, seating areas and routes between the stadium’s entrances and the nearby Mineirinho Gymnasium.

A number of large projects are underway in Brazil, as the country prepares for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Other recently completed projects include a new art museum and art school in Rio and a huge social housing complex in São Paulo.

See more architecture on Brazil »
See more stadiums »

Here’s some more information from BCMF Arquitetos:

New Mineirão

Inaugurated in 1965 (original design by Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto) as the second largest stadium in the world, the Mineirão Stadium is located in the surroundings of the Pampulha Lagoon, close to Oscar Niemeyer’s and Burle Marx seminal work, being part of Belo Horizonte’s main postcard. As Brazil was chosen to host the World Cup 2014, opportunity came about to transform the traditional stadium, whose façade is heritage listed, into a contemporary multifunctional sports facility.

The New Mineirão aims to go beyond its primary role as a world-class sports arena, also offering a range of services, commerce, culture and entertainment for the city, becoming a new hub of activities integrated to the modernist landscape of the leisure and touristic Pampulha complex.

The instrument chosen to make this operation possible was a public-private partnership (PPP), determining that the redevelopment of the stadium would be undertaken by a company which, in return, would be granted its use for the next 25 years. The winner of the bid was Minas Arena Consortium, that invited BCMF Architects, renowned for their expertise in sports architecture, to be responsible for the renovation of the New Mineirão.

In this context, to transform the “Pampulha Giant” into a modern multifunctional facility, the interventions proposed are both radical and respectful, reinforcing the monumental original structure within the iconic modernist landscape.

As for the original architecture of the Stadium, basically only the outer “shell” remained: the 88 structural semi-porticos, the concrete roof and the upper tiers. The rest of the “core” was completely rebuilt to guarantee the total overhaul inside the arena, including the new extension of the roof, all the new program and infrastructure, besides the lowering of the pitch and the lower tiers redesign, improving the sight-lines for the new capacity of 62,160 seats.

The renovation on the outside is total, with a new 200,000 sqm operational platform separating the spectators’ from the accredited flow. The “Esplanade” includes various facilities around the stadium, opened to the public as an immense landscaped plaza, visually linked to the Pampulha Lagoon. This platform is sculpted and moulded to the site as an artificial topography, integrated with the immediate surroundings, being perceived as a continuation of the street domain. Thus, the public is attracted by programs strategically distributed throughout the esplanade, creating areas with potential to generate activities and movement during all day, seven days a week.

The project has also sustainable features, using solar energy, reusing rainwater, as well as efficient lighting systems, intelligent control of energy and so on (LEED Certification). After the event, many operational areas which are specific for the 2014 World Cup will have other uses (institutional, commercial and leisure programs), contributing for the economic sustainability of the complex.

The New Mineirão points out ways in which sports mega events can leave a lasting legacy to the host-cities. Here, even though interventions are made on a stadium scale, they respond to the demands of larger scales, such as the neighbourhood, the landscape and the city itself. Thus, the ambition is that the urban domain should be invited into the realm and scope of the architecture.

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by BCMF Arquitetos appeared first on Dezeen.

Two blocks face each other across the forecourt of this symmetrical housing development in São Paulo by local firm Corsi Hirano Arquitetos (+ slideshow).

Situated in the outskirts of the city, Corsi Hirano Arquitetos split the eight social housing units into a pair of blocks either side of a large paved driveway where residents are encouraged to congregate.

The line of the roof extends out over the extruded glass-fronted boxes that house the staircases, creating shelters over the entrances. Half the residences have these stairs at the front and half have them at the rear.

Each home has an open-plan living space on the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, plus a small garden and an extra shower room out the back.

Wooden shutters, window and door frames break up the all-white surfaces.

Street-facing end walls of each block are detailed with vertical grooves and separated from the fence by a thin window, so that they appear to float above it.

The development is secured by grated metal gates that slide across the front of the drive.

We featured a housing project that references 1960s tower blocks in central São Paulo a few days ago. See more architecture in São Paulo »

More residential architecture on Dezeen includes blackened wood buildings teetering on the edge of a precipice in Sweden and the overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in Sheffield. See more housing design »

Photography is by Leonardo Finotti.

Corsi Hirano Arquitetos sent us this project description:

The AV Houses bases itself in the valuation of the public space through an architectural commitment with collective sense possible of being expressed from the private property.

The void originated by the built elements provides the appearance of a new place, opposed to main preconceived occupations of independent parallel properties that establish no relations in itself or with public space.

Its strategy groups eight housing units in two blocks by which remaining areas delimit an intermediate space that becomes its main premise.

Contemplating the necessity for the largest site occupation ratio and preserving the internal areas demanded for each unity, the articulation of constructed and non-constructed limits configures the collective central patio of great proportions considering the site dimensions.

A modest architectonical complex but representative of an essence of space that consists in a social opportunity: architecture as a city generator and venue for its inhabitants.

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Corsi Hirano Arquitetos appeared first on Dezeen.

Brazilian studios MMBB and H+F Arquitetos reference tower blocks from the 1960s with this social housing complex flanking the Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge in São Paulo (+ slideshow).

The Jardim Edite Social Housing Complex replaces a large favela on the junction between Avenida Berrini and Avenida Marinho, a part of the city that has seen a boom in high-end real estate in recent years.

MMBB and H+F Arquitetos teamed up to design the complex, creating 252 new residences within three 17-storey towers and a pair of adjoining two-storey blocks.

Each unit has two bedrooms and an area of 50 square metres – the maximum permitted size for social housing in the city.

Public services occupy the ground-floor spaces, offering a healthcare facility, a children’s daycare centre and a catering school. There are also communal gardens and rooftop terraces for residents.

The architects deliberately left out any parking provision, which they hoped would deter local office workers from moving in. Instead, many of the favela’s original residents returned to occupy the new homes.

“For us it is a laboratory for investigating ideas for the kind of city we want to build here in São Paulo,” H+F’s Eduardo Ferroni told Architectural Record.

Other recent architecture stories from Brazil include a new art museum and art school in Rio and a concrete photography studio, also in São Paulo. See more architecture in Brazil »

Photography is by Nelson Kon.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Jardim Edite Social Housing Complex

The Jardim Edite Social Housing Complex was commissioned to replace a favela located on one of the most significant areas of recent growth in both the business and financial sector of the city of São Paulo.

To ensure the integration among the housing complex and its rich surroundings, the project articulated the housing program vertically and occupied the ground floor entirely by public facilities, available for the residential community as well as for the rest of the city, inserting the complex in the economy and everyday life of the region.

The rooftops of the public facilities also functions as a common area for the inhabitants, connecting housing buildings within each block, allowing for a secluded place for social interaction between the residents in the midst of the metropolitan scale of the surrounding area.

The project has a total area of 25.500 sqm, with 252 housing units of 50 sqm, a restaurant school (850 sqm), a basic health-care unit (1300 sqm) and a daycare center (1400 sqm).

Location: Av. Eng. Luís Carlos Berrini with Av. J. Roberto Marinho, São Paulo
Area: 25.714 sqm
Client: Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo – Secretaria Municipal da Habitação (Sehab/Habi)
Architecture: MMBB and H+F

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by MMBB and H+F Arquitetos appeared first on Dezeen.

Afin de rendre hommage au défunt architecte brésilien Oscar Niemeyer, l’artiste Edouardo Kobra a réalisé cette superbe peinture murale de 52 mètres de haut sur 16 de large. Située à Sao Paulo sur Paulista Avenue, cette création colorée est un magnifique clin d’oeil à ce grand monsieur de l’architecture.

This conceptual skyscraper by Brazilian architects Projeto Coletivo would be constructed using rubbish in the city of São Paulo.

The architects imagine a series of the buildings beside the rivers Tietê and Pinheiros, with recycling centres in the lower levels and modular apartments for homeless people upstairs.

Residents would be required to work in the recycling centres, cleaning and sorting their own rubbish for use in further construction and repairs.

More waste could also be transported to the buildings by boat from the city centre.

The architects designed the project for this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, which asks entrants to come up with inventive and futuristic skyscraper proposals.

Another conceptual skyscraper we’ve recently featured is a thatched housing block.

See all our stories about skyscrapers »

Here’s some information from Projeto Coletivo:

Scrap Skyscraper

The main idea is about being a cultural landmark in changing the mindset of people, where the future is the use of garbage, the view that the waste we generate has value both as an agent of social change and as a physical element of construction. Nowadays people usually do not bother with the garbage they generate, see it as a problem of others. Changing this thinking is crucial to change the course of evolution of the planet to a sustainable path.

The building works on the issues of a specific city, in this case São Paulo, beginning a transition point that tries to achieve a better life quality for the population by the use of the trash that its inhabitants generate.

The buildings will be placed alongside the rivers Tietê and Pinheiros, those rivers will be used as waterways to transport the trash from the city to the upcycling centers. Using the rivers as waterways to transport the waste improves the traffic in the city, enabling garbage trucks travel over shorter distances, and leverages the power of the center of upcycling, that receives more material. In the basement of the building, located on the banks of the Tiete River, there is an upcycling and recycling center, giving rise to the building and taking advantage of its strategic location which enhances the transport of waste through the city. The idea is that the residents will work on the bottom of the building, as a factory, recycling, cleaning and selecting waste, previously taught by experts in the field. This material will be used on the building’s construction and also for crafts, urging creativity of the own workers. The opportunity for a social revolution that gives homeless people the chance to learn a trade and have a place to live.

Autors: PROJETO COLETIVO – Guilherme de Macedo, Giovanni Medeiros, João Gabriel Kuster, Rafael Ferraz, Rodolfo Parolin e Thiago Augustus.
Local: Curitiba – Brazil

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by Projeto Coletivo appeared first on Dezeen.