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Infrastructures for residents: São Paulo's long-term investment in communal architecture

Like all mega-cities around the globe, São Paulo faces huge challenges. Yet despite these manifold and daunting tasks, the Brazilian metropolis has since the 1960s maintained a prudent policy of investing in communal infrastructure, thus providing inclusive places and spaces for all of its 20m-population. While many cities aim for a Bilbao-effect by funding iconic, tourist-orientated projects such as museums or theatres, São Paulo persistently supports programs and usages that serve its permanent residents.

This book, published in conjunction with an exhibition at A.M. Architekturmuseum der TU München, features a selection of these buildings and programs from five decades. Ranging from a simple canopy over a public park to vast multifunctional buildings, they provide spaces for sports and culture, education, healthcare, or gastronomy. Rather than merely serving a specific purpose, their key role is to be places for people spending time together.

• São Paulo is a prime example among megacities in emerging countries for how to tackle major social challenges they face
• Presents São Paulo's prudent and inclusive policy in urban development and infrastructure planning
• Demonstrates the city's focus on programs and usages serving the permanent residents rather than iconic, tourist-orientated projects such as museums

• Features projects realized and planned since the 1960s that exemplify the underlying concepts and strategies

  Autorentext
  Andres Lepik ist Kunsthistoriker. Er war Kurator der Neuen Nationalgalerie in Berlin und des Architecture and Design Department am Museum of Modern Art in New York. Seit 2012 ist er Professor für Architekturgeschichte und kuratorische Praxis sowie Direktor des A.M. Architekturmuseums der TU München. Daniel Talesnik ist Architekt und promovierte an der Columbia University über die Emigration von Bauhaus-Studenten in die Sowjetunion. Seit 2017 ist er Kurator am A.M. Architekturmuseum der TU München.

  Zusammenfassung

Infrastructures for residents: São Paulo's long-term investment in communal architecture