The modernist ideas that dominated 20th century planning too often favored “tabula rasa” approaches to urban renewal, which were socially destructive and failed to accommodate dynamic growth. The Dutch municipality of Hoograven is a prime example of this phenomenon. There, local leaders invited U-TT to develop an integrated revitalization strategy for restoring and retrofitting the deteriorating post-war blocks that housed a predominantly North African immigrant community, as well as introduce new mixed-use social infrastructure.

U-TT proposed an array of projects focused on accommodating increased density, cultural-hybridity, and street-level informality. The designs include kasbah-inspired housing, multifunctional culture hubs, and parasitic rehabilitative interventions that plug-in to the existing urban fabric through a flexible, modular system. Clustered into “hot spots”, the intention was that these accupunctural projects would serve collectively as a catalyst for responsible growth, as well as contribute to the improved integration of marginalized immigrant groups.

Well-designed social infrastructure has the potential to not only bring important services and opportunities to deprived areas, but also act as a powerful catalyst for future urban development. Paraisópolis is located in southwest São Paulo, adjacent to Morumbi, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. Despite challenging topography and recurrent,dangerous mudslides in periods of heavy rainfall, approximately 80,000 people now live on the territory in a dense, informal settlement covering less than one square kilometer.

While mapping the area and interviewing residents, U-TT learned of a local music organization hoping to build a new practice and performance center. Inspired by this story, U-TT developed a proposal that would transform an inaccessible void within the dense fabric, which had been cleared of homes after a severe mudslide, into a productive and dynamic community hub.

The design centers on a music and dance school in the lower zone, which stacks diverse programs to maximize site potential. These include an open theater, performance hall, practice and rehearsal spaces, studios, and classrooms. The other key component is a new terraced landscape, which in addition to stabilizing the sloped terrain and preventing further erosion, will transform Grotão into a natural arena, encouraging diverse community participation, and re-establishing connections through the site to the wider neighborhood. In this way, the project will expand cultural programs into the community, while forming a new network that serves youth from all levels of society. The municipal government soon signed on to the project, and planned new social housing facilities nearby for residents currently living precariously on the site. Construction began in 2014 and is estimated to be completed by the end of 2016.

Fábrica de Cultura: Grotão

Buildings

Torre David inspired U-TT to look beyond its singular context and apply deeper lessons about the potential of adaptive reuse and mixed use housing. The first step in what has become a broader research and design program was to investigate how parking garages – an existing generic typology in cities worldwide – could be repurposed for more productive uses. The simple open-plan structure of these sites allows space to be reconfigured into rooms without concern for supporting walls. Ramps and stairs stand in for elevators, partitions are kept to a strict minimum, and open facades provide natural lighting and ventilation.

While conducting research with students in Trinidad and Tobago, U-TT found its first case study. In the capital Port of Spain, the Ministry of the People and Social Development had turned part of a multistory car park into a homeless shelter for 360 occupants. Inside, poorly ventilated dormitories were bricked off and stacked from floor to ceiling with bunk beds. While the program had a positive social aim, the residents lived in cramped conditions. U-TT proposed to continue the renovation, by improving the living quarters and adding designated spaces for agriculture, sustainable energy production, a large social space, kitchen, library, laundry unit, classroom, and workshop. Public services, such as a health clinic or sports facilities on the roof, would attract a wider mix of users and address the stigma attached to the building.

U-TT has since explored further applications of this open building strategy in formal and informal urban environments. Open building concepts initially emerged as a means to anticipate changing user demands and embed participation in the design process. Representing a radical alternative to post-war mass housing schemes, this approach envisions a future where architects design building frameworks, while residents or users are responsible for customized infill development over time. U-TT has translated this idea into a range of conceptual designs for adaptable, flexible structures that take into account the perpetually changing nature of cities.

Whether in Caracas, Athens, Cape Town, or Shenzhen, open building concepts are ultimately about achieving an elusive balance between stability and self-intiated change.

Open Building Prototype

Bottom-up strategies are one way to address prevailing urban scarcities. Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer and a national banking crisis that crippled the Venezuelan economy in 1994. Neglected for over a decade, in 2007 it became the improvised home for a community of over 1,000 families living in an extra-legal and tenuous occupation that many called a vertical slum.

U-TT began to research and document the physical and social organization of the tower, believing there was something valuable to learn from what the residents created in eight years of squatting. The community was neither a den of criminality, nor a romantic utopia. Rather, Torre David was a building that possessed the complexity of a city. It merged formal structure and informal adaptation to provide urgently needed solutions.In 2012, after a year of research, U-TT began to work with residents and a diverse team of collaborators to document the squatters’ adaptive reuse of the existing structure, interview residents about their experience, and design proposals to retrofit the tower complex. In particular, the sustainable engineers of the SuAT Chair at ETH Zürich helped develop novel circulatory, electrical, and water infrastructure schemes. While striving to raise funds to implement some of these ideas, the documentary and design work was disseminated in a book, short film, lectures, and numerous exhibitions.

In 2014, the Venezuelan government announced its intention to end the occupation and transform Torre David into a commercial center and office tower. The police evicted residents, relocating most families to a new social housing project located beyond the outskirts of the city. As of mid-2015, the future of Torre David is still uncertain.

Location	Utrecht, Holland
Year	2010
Client	Utrecht Manifest, City of Utrecht, Harm Scheltern
Project Architects	Michael Contento, Lindsey Sherman
Design Team	Zachary Aders, Rajiv Fernandez, Carlos Guimaraes, Emily Johnson, Lea Rufenacht, Allison Schwartz
Status	Proposed